Naruto: A Smarter Shinobi!
by Oraki.Vendo
Summary: Take our usual idiotic blonde hero, add a small change of events, and BAM you've got a new and improved Naruto. One, that with help from his friends, will rise to become not just the strongest ninja in his village, but the world! AU. Mild-cross overs. Small OC's here and there. Multiple pairings throughout the story. Character deaths. Will often deter from canon for side arcs.
1. The first page of a new chapter

**HELLO MINA-SAN~!**

**VENDO-SAMA IS BACK! :3**

**So I know I still have a few other stories that I am currently working on but just between us, I personally don't think they are very good and I did them such a long time ago that I've kind of lost interest in them. However, Naruto the Demon Sage will continue simply because I don't want to let all of you down so, for at least a little longer that will continue on.**

**BUT! That is not this story! This is my latest work and its going to be EPIC. I'm plan on taking my time with this piece so as to create a fun and exciting story that I'll enjoy writing and all of you will enjoy reading (hopefully). I've already got heaps ideas for this story and I've done the plans for the next eight or so chapters.**

**There will be multiple arcs within this story and it will definitely deter from Canon. A lot. Expect character deaths. Naruto will end up being with multiple women but all his age (or close to it at the very least) but not all at the same time and it won't be until like later on when everyone is a little bit older and ya know, start getting interested in the opposite sex.****There will be a really big focus on team work and the Genin's interactions with each other. Especially Team 7. Naruto will be somewhat smarter, calmer and collected. He will be taking quite the leadership role in this fic and his determination will be tested often. Sakura is not going to be as much of a bitch and Sasuke is still going to be the arrogant asshole he is but he'll be nicer and I suppose somewhat more sociable but only to a specific few.**

**There will be numerous cross-overs within this fic but not of other characters joining the Naruto-verse. Just powers, abilities and weapons. I know that seems a little iffy but trust me on this. :P**

**I do believe that is all I need to tell you...**

**So, please enjoy the story! :D**

**Oh and I do apologise but the first three chapters will be somewhat slow moving. After that though, it's GO GO GO!**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer:<strong>

**Unfortunately, despite being how cool and awesome I am, I do not own Naruto.**

**That honour goes to the esteemed Kishimoto-sensei whom I respect quite a lot.**

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><p><strong>Naruto: The Tale of a Slightly Smarter Shinobi<strong>

**Chapter 1: The First Page of a New Chapter**

"Naruto."

"Naruto!"

"NARUTO!"

"**DAMN IT NARUTO, WAKE UP!**"

With a slow, sloth like movement, our blonde haired hero tilted his head to face his instructor. A slight trickle of drool could be seen escaping from his mouth.

"Why'd you have to wake me up for Iruka-sensei, I was having a really good dream ya know."

"That's exactly why I woke you up Naruto. You were sleeping during one of my lectures," Iruka said exasperated. Naruto looked up at his sensei with his drowse induced eyes. Said man looked back at him with a slight glare. After a moment, Naruto simply turned his head over and started to sleep again. A tick mark formed on Iruka's forehead.

"Naruto! Get up right now or I'll have you clean all the tables in the academy for a week!" Iruka said angrily. With a yawn, Naruto slowly started to raise his head off the table.

"Ok, Ok I'm up," he said as he stretched a little. "What'd I miss?" he asked. With a sigh, Iruka moved to address the whole class.  
>"Because Naruto here missed majority of the lecture, each person is going to tell me one thing they know about the Hokage."<p>

A collective moan erupted in the class.  
>"Sensei! Why do all of us have to be punished because of the idiot?"<p>

Iruka smirked.  
>"Because I said so. On top of that, this lets me get to see if all of you were actually paying attention to my past lectures. Think of it as a pop quiz. Now, let's start. We'll go from the top of the class and work our way down," he said. He then pointed to the girl sitting at the back. "Hinata, would you please start us off?" he asked smiling. With a start, she stood up from her seat.<p>

"Y-Yes sensei!" Hinata took a breath to steady herself. "T-The Hokage w-w-were legendary ninja w-w-who led our v-village into greatness."

Iruka smiled.

"Good job Hinata."

Feeling a little relieved, Hinata sat back down.

"Ok," Iruka started "Next!"

And so the next person got up and said one thing they knew about the Hokage. This proceeded to happen throughout the whole class. Each person would stand up and mention one thing they knew about the past four Hokage. There were a rather wide variety of answers between the students. Answers that ranged from the type of techniques the different Hokage were famous for, the weapons they used, some of the summons they had, their teachers, and so on. Iruka was rather pleased with how much his students knew about the Hokage. However, there was one student that gave him his doubts: Iruka's favourite student but also most troublesome. He decided to save Naruto for last so as to hopefully allow one of the students that were currently giving a piece of information about the Hokage make something spark in Naruto so that he remembered something about them. Little did he know though, Naruto was probably the most informed person about the Hokage in the room (despite his sensei of course). He loved the Hokage. He thought they were so cool! He loved how they were so respected, so feared and well known. That's exactly what he wanted to become, respected and well known. This was the reason why he made Hokage his goal. The stories that the Third had told him about the past Hokage just attracted him. Naruto wanted people to tell stories of him like they did the past Hokage. When it was finally Naruto's turn and he stood up, instead of answering like he should have, he simply said:

"I don't need to know a thing about the Hokage! They're not going to matter when I take their spot and out shine them ya know!"

There was a pause. Then a moment afterwards, the whole class started to laugh.

"Ahaha! As if an idiot like you could become the Hokage!" shouted a boy near the back.

"Yeah! Kiba's dog has a better chance to get that spot than you do!"

The insults continued. Naruto hung his head so that his hair over shadowed his eyes. No matter how many times they said it, no matter how many times he ignored them and pretended that their words didn't mean anything, it didn't change the fact that it still hurt. After all, he was still just a kid; one that was dealt a rather bad hand in life. However, he never let it bother him for long. With a face of strong determination, he turned around , raised his head and faced everyone.  
>"Watch me!" he shouted "I'll be the best ninja that this village has ever seen! And before you know it, I'll have you eating your words!" The class continued laughing except for a few people like Shikamaru, Hinata, Sasuke, Shino and Chouji. They didn't participate in the classes petty bullying. Iruka sighed.<p>

"Sit down Naruto," he said a little exasperated. "Your Hokage speeches are all well and good, just don't do them in my class. Now, would you at least please answer the question like everyone else?"

Naruto gave a nod.

"Thank you," Iruka said as a small smile graced his face. "OK, so Naruto, tell me something you know about the Hokage."

Naruto's smile grew really wide; he really liked talking about the Hokage. It was his dream after all.

"The Forth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, was said to be the greatest out of the four Hokage!" he declared. Iruka gave a small smile. It was rather basic but it was at least a try for his delinquent student. Hinata Hyuuga said something just as basic earlier anyhow. He decided he would let him off easy today.

"Good job Naruto. Ok next," However, Iruka was suddenly cut off by Naruto's voice.

"The Fourth Hokage's nick name was 'The Yellow Flash' because of his teleportation jutsu that allowed him to teleport from once place to another with his signature kunai. His victory over Iwa, in the Third Great Shinobi War earned him the very first Flee on Sight order ever seen in a Bingo Book. It wasn't long afterwards was he elected as the Fourth Hokage. Where, once again he lived up to his name and title by protecting the village from the Kyuubi, which wreaked havoc within the village. It was one of the worst moments in all of Konoha's history. Many lives were lost including our late Hokage."

Everyone was stunned into silence. Naruto had gone into a detailed description of one of the Hokage. Something no one ever thought he'd be able to do. Naruto had given his little presentation with his eyes closed so as to concentrate on remembering all the information that the Third had told him. However, at the end of it, his eyes opened and a massive grin was etched on his face.

"He's also my idol and we kind of look the same ya know!" he shouted as he did a little fist pump into the air. Everyone gave a little sigh and went back to ignoring him as Naruto sat back down, everyone but Shikamaru that is.

'They do kind of look the same don't they…' he thought to himself as he gazed over his occasional class-ditching buddy.

"U-Uh, thanks for that Naruto. That was very…informative," Iruka stuttered as he tried to recompose himself.

'Where did that even come from? I might have a word with him after class about it,' Iruka thought as he continued his lecture.

It wasn't until another couple of hours was class finally dismissed. Naruto had once again fallen asleep (not long after Iruka had resumed teaching) but he woke up for the last ten minutes of the lesson. Once the final bell had rang, all the students hurriedly made their way out of the classroom, besides for a few, Naruto being one of them. Naruto was the last person out of the classroom. He decided that he'd take a leisurely stroll after class. It wasn't like anyone was waiting for him at home anyway. He had gotten up from his chair and desk and made his way down the classroom.

"Seeya later sensei," Naruto said as he walked past his teacher sitting behind his desk that was placed in front of the class with his hands behind his back. Iruka hurriedly fixed up the papers he was fiddling with before he dismissed class.

"Wait a second Naruto," he said, as Naruto was about to leave the classroom. Naruto turned around to face his sensei with a confused look.

"What did you need sensei?" he asked simply. Iruka walked up beside him.

"Well you see," he began "I was curious as to where you got that information on the Hokage from. I never taught you any of that in my lectures before."

Naruto turned around completely so he was properly facing his teacher. With a smile he said "Yeah! The Old man taught it to me! I was in his office one time and he was telling me all about the Hokage! It was one of the best afternoons I've had with him ya know," he said happily as he recalled the memory with the Third Hokage in his head.

Iruka gave an understanding nod. Naruto rarely got to spend any one on one time with anyone so it's not that hard to assume that it was one of the moments he cherished and learnt from. Iruka smiled fondly at Naruto. He knew that Naruto was a smart boy, and a hard working one to boot. He just needed a way to teach him things without being labeled as a teacher that played favourites (despite the fact that everyone already knew that Naruto was his favourite). Sure he could just spend hours and hours before and after class with Naruto, but all extra remedial classes and one on one teacher time that had any resemblance to tutoring had to be pre-approved before hand. And, with Naruto's rather unfortunate reputation, the educational board at the academy probably wouldn't allow Iruka the privilege of tutoring Naruto. Iruka sighed which went unnoticed by Naruto who had continued rambling about the 'cool things' he had done with the Third Hokage.  
>'If only there was a place where there was a rather extensive amount of information that Naruto could learn from.' Iruka thought to himself. He suddenly felt like smashing his head against the doorframe for being such an idiot.<p>

'Of course!' He thought to himself 'The Konoha library!'  
>Iruka suddenly grinned wildly.<br>"Uh…" Naruto started "is everything OK sensei, your smile is kind of creeping me out," Naruto said tilting his head to get a better look at his sensei's face.  
>Iruka gave a nod.<br>"Yes Naruto, everything is fine," he said recomposing himself. He looked at Naruto.  
>"Would you like to learn a little more about the Hokage and about a lot of other super cool stuff as well?" Iruka asked Naruto with a tone that was drenched in temptation.<p>

Naruto's curiosity was peaked. He would never miss a chance to learn more about the Hokage. He quickly thought on it for a moment though. He did plan on getting some ramen. He quickly shrugged it off though. He could always get ramen later. In fact, he thought he might be lucky enough that Iruka may end up treating him again.  
>"Yeah ok!" Naruto said happily. Iruka stood up straight and went to grab the rest of his things from his desk.<br>"Ok Naruto, follow me!" He exclaimed as he led the way out of the classroom and the academy until they found themselves on Konoha's roads. The two walked through the streets of Konoha for quite some time in relative silence. Iruka walking at a rather brisk pace thinking about what books he should make Naruto read and whether or not he would actually read them. Naruto walked a couple of steps behind his sensei with his hands behind his back. He wasn't sure where they were going but he was hoping it would be exciting and super cool. Unfortunately, when they arrived at their destination, he was incredibly disappointed.

"A library!" he shouted pointing at the building whilst yelling at his sensei. "You made us walk all that way for a library?" he asked annoyed. A smile grew on Iruka's face.  
>"Yep!" he said "A library!"<p>

Naruto just gave him a deadpanned look.

"Sensei, you can't be serious. You and I both know me and books don't go so well together."

Iruka shrugged his shoulders.

"Who knows, maybe you have just been reading the wrong ones." With that he started to make his way inside the library. Naruto protested but followed along anyway. When they entered. Naruto was stunned. The place was huge! It was like an endless sea of books that carried on for another two floors. Each bookcase had to be at least seven shelves tall. Despite it being such a large place, he realised that there weren't as many people there as he thought there would be. And those that were there were mostly adults or the elderly. Iruka had walked past the counter and started making his throughout the different rows of bookshelves followed by Naruto.

"Sensei," Naruto began with a whisper "what exactly are we doing here?" he asked as he looked around

"You said you wanted to learn more right?" Iruka asked as he pulled out a random book and looked at the title before putting it back.

"Well, this is the library. There isn't going to be a better place for learning than here. Everything you could ever want to know is somewhere within these stacks of books. You just have to find it is all," he said as he pulled out another book, this time keeping it as he moved on. Naruto could only shake his head.  
>"But sensei!" Naruto protested, "We both know these stupid things won't help me! I thought you were going to take me somewhere cool."<p>

Iruka sighed.

"Look Naruto," he told his student "just give these books a chance. Take a look around. I'm sure you'll find something interesting. Besides, this is a shinobi library. Most of these books have some kind of link to the shinobi arts." He told him. "Look," Iruka said as he pointed to the desk where a young librarian wearing glasses sat. "Ask her for any kind of book you want or how this library is structured or for just any information about the library. Make sure you sign up so you can borrow books ok. I'll give you one hour. If you can borrow five books that you find actually interesting and will read, I'll treat you to ramen."

Naruto's face went from that of annoyance to determination.

"You got it sensei! I'll borrow five books no doubt! Then, ramen!" he shouted which got him a shushing noise from his sensei.

"I admire the enthusiasm, but we're in a library Naruto, you need to keep it down," he whispered. Naruto gave a silent nod as he walked off and headed towards the counter.

"Excuse me," Naruto whispered to the girl on the other side of the counter. There was no response. He tried again a little louder.

"Excuse me."

The girl looked at him. There was a moment of awkward silence between the two. Naruto was about to say something but the girl cut in first.

"Was there something I could help you with?" she asked. He gave a nod. The girl beckoned for him to ask away and so he did.

"Well, you see," he began "my sensei said I should borrow some books but I don't know what books to borrow. He said this was a shinobi library and that I should ask about the different sections of the library so that finding books would be easier."

The girl gave a nod. All of that made sense.

"So I was hoping you could help me out by telling me about the library and stuff."

The girl gave another small nod.

"Sure," she said. From there, she started to explain everything about the library; everything from the different books that the library stored, the different sections of the library and where he could find certain books. As she did this, Naruto took in certain details of the girl behind the counter. She was young, around her late teens. She wore a brown coat with a blue scarf. She had rectangular glasses that sat on the bridge of her nose. Her hair was long and curly but not curly enough to make it look messy.

"So did you get all of that?" she asked him making Naruto come back to his senses.

"U-Uh, yeah. Thanks Ms…uh…"

"Call me Rika," the newly announced Rika said with a smile when she realised that the blonde was trying to find a way to address her.

"Thank you Rika!" he said with a smile. Rika frowned.

"That's Rika-san to young man," she told him. With her frown never leaving her face she looked at him sternly "and it's polite to introduce yourself first," she scolded. Naruto looked down embarrassed.

"Sorry," he said as he looked back up at her with a sheepish smile whilst scratching the back of his head. "The names Naruto Uzumaki! The number one prankster in the leaf village and future Hokage ya know!" he told Rika. The brunette gave a critical eye on Naruto. The tension between the two was rather high. Naruto was sure she would tell him to leave the moment she realised that he was the young man always pulling pranks within the village but it turns out he was wrong. Rika gave him a warm smile.

"Well Naruto," she started "As long as you behave, don't make much noise and don't pull any pranks, you're welcome here anytime."

Naruto's smile only grew.

"Thank you again!"

"Don't mention it," Rika said. Rika then had a thought.

"Say Naruto, you don't have a library card do you?" she asked him. He shook his head. She gave him another smile.

"Well," Rika began "I'll tell you what. You go over there and look for books you would like to borrow and bring them over here. When you bring them back, I'll set up a library card for you."

With another quick thank you, Naruto made his way towards the ocean of books. He heard some of the things that Rika had told him about the different sections of the library and what he ought to look for. She told him that all the shinobi books were on both the second and third floor. However, seeing as he wasn't completely sure as to what he wanted read, decided to start looking around in the civilian section which was on the first floor. He decided to peruse around the different sections of the first floor of the library. As he did so, Naruto found some rather interesting books. Two that really caught his eye were 'Basic wilderness survival' and 'Cooking: Made Easy.' Seeing as Naruto hardly spent anytime in the wild or living rough, he figured that he ought to learn seeing as he wanted to become a ninja. Everyone knew that a lot of ninja's spent a lot of their time camping out and living off the land. Might as well learn as much as he could about it right? As for the second book, despite the fact that he loved ramen, even he knew that it wasn't exactly the healthiest food. However, it was practical and definitely did the job of filling him up. But, Naruto also longed to be able to eat all kinds of delicious foods. Seeing as he didn't have the money to go around buying nice foods, might as well learn how to make them instead. He flicked through the book. He liked how they all looked pretty simple to make and still looked good as well. So, he decided to take both books with him. Naruto then slowly started climbing the stairs to the shinobi section. Once he got there, he saw that the two floors were divided all into rank. The first floor of the shinobi section (or the second floor of the library) was for Genin and Chuunin. The Chuunin section was locked off by black bars and had a slot to insert what looked like some kind of ID card.

'Probably just for security,' Naruto deduced. However, the Genin section was completely open. There were no locks or anything. Academy students like him could even walk in and find a book to borrow. Which, Naruto decided to do. The moment he walked in, it was like walking into a candy shop with a ton of money. All the books were on ninjutsu or other stuff retaining to the ninja arts. Before he knew it, he was pulling books out of the shelves and looking at the covers and flicking through the pages left and right. He found books on chakra control, how to get out of and set traps, the best places to attack on the human body, some shinobi history and more. In the end, Naruto ended up borrowing a number of different books. Chakra Control: The Key to Mastering Jutsu, Basic Jutsu vol. 1, The Art of Taijutsu: The Shinobi's First Art and finally, a dusty small book he found near the back of the Genin section. It was a story. Not an information book but a story about a ninja. The book was titled The Tale of an Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. Naruto thought the title sounded cool so he thought he'd borrow it as well. He honestly didn't think he'd read any of these books, let alone the story but he figured he'd make Iruka happy and that Rika girl didn't seem like a bad person, so he thought he ought to make her happy too. Naruto found a number of different books that he thought were pretty cool but he didn't want to carry too much and on top of that a lot of them were a little bit too complicated for him. So he decided to just roll with what he had. He made his way out of the Genin section. As he did so though, he managed to spy the stairs that led up to the Jounin and higher-ranking floor. The stairs were guarded by what looked like two Chuunin. Obviously the security levels for those books would be high. Most of them probably held super top-secret village secrets. Naruto thought it would be cool to one day be able to walk in there but seeing as he was still only an academy student, that goal seemed a little far away.

'Oh well,' he thought. Happy with the books he had, he made his way back down the stairs and off to the counter where Rika the librarian was. When the desk was in sight, he saw Iruka already there talking to the brunette. He walked up to them with a little wave. Iruka and Rika both flashed him a smile.

"Hello Naruto," Iruka said, "I see you found a number of books." Iruka was looking at the small pile of books in Naruto's arms. He was happy that Naruto was at least going to give books ago, even if he did have to bribe him with Ramen. Naruto gave a nod. He put his books on the counter and then looked down at his feet embarrassedly.

"Ya know," he started quietly "I don't have any spare money to pay for these books Iruka-sensei, so how am I meant to borrow them?" he asked. Both Iruka and Rika looked at each other. There was a moment between the two before they started laughing. Naruto suddenly got angry. Were they laughing at his misfortune? How dare they!

"It's not funny ya know!" he shouted at them. Rika was the first to settle down.

"Sorry Naruto, it's just that this is a library. You don't need money to borrow books. That's the whole point," She told him.

"Your sensei here just gave me your details and I made you a library card while you were looking for books," she said as she handed him a little plastic card with his name on it.

"Whenever you want to borrow books, all you have to do is take your books to the counter, show the librarian – which is usually me – your card, they'll take it, scan it, scan the book and then the book is under your name, all completely free. See." Rika said as she demonstrated the process she just told him by doing it herself with the new books he borrowed. It took less than a moment before she handed him back his books with a smile on her face.

"All done."

Naruto took the books back.

"Thank you," he said with a toothy grin. He was kind of excited to start looking at some of the books.

"Well, we better get going, I owe this rascal some ramen," Iruka said as he messed up Naruto's hair. Naruto brushed his arm off.

"Before you go," Rika told Naruto "Remember, the books are due in one month, that means you have to either return them before then or get an extension on the borrowing date. Otherwise, you'll have to pay money because they are overdue."

"Ex-ten-sion?" Naruto said saying each syllable so as to try and fully grasp the word. Rika giggled.

"It means you can borrow the book for longer," Iruka added which gave him a nod from Rika. Naruto gave a nod in understanding.

"OK!" Naruto said as he started heading towards the exit with his sensei.

"I'll see you around Rika-nee!" he called back waving to her as he left the library followed by his sensei. Rika smiled.

'He sure is something,' she thought to herself. 'I told him to call me Rika-san though. Oh well, I could get used to the Rika-nee,' she thought with a small smile as she went back to her book.

It wasn't too long before the two shinobi (well, one shinobi and a shinobi to be) were sitting at the young blondes favourite eating establishment.

"Here you are," Teuchi said as he placed a bowl of miso ramen in front of Naruto.

"Itadakimasu," was all Naruto said before he hurriedly started eating his food. Iruka sat next to him eating his own bowl but at a much slower rate.

"Jeez Naruto, ease up a little. The ramen isn't going anywhere," he told him. Naruto ignored his sensei. A few minutes later, Naruto was on his second bowl.

"He sure does eat a lot doesn't he," Iruka said. Both chefs of the restaurant gave a firm nod with a happy smile.

"Yep. He's our number one customer for a reason. I'm thinking to get him a custom bowl just for him. Make it super large. If he likes it, I might even put it on the menu. Call it, the Uzumaki sized ramen. What do ya think? Pretty catchy right?" Teuchi asked Iruka with a smirk. Iruka could only give a smile as a response.

"Yeah, it does sound pretty catchy," he said a little unsure. Teuchi however didn't care. He knew that before too long he'd be brining in big bucks with the new Uzumaki sized ramen. Definitely.

Ayame, Teuchi's daughter was handing Naruto a glass of water.

"What are all the books that you have next to you about Naruto?" she asked him with a smile.

"Oh this?" he confirmed looking at the books next to him, "These are the books I borrowed from the library Ayame-nee-chan. There's a ton of cool stuff I got from there. And Rika-nee and Iruka-sensei helped me borrow them," he told her. Ayame was happy that Naruto had found a new sense of information and hopefully a new productive hobby, however there was something that concerned her.

"Rika-nee?" she questioned. Naruto gave a firm nod as he took a sip from his water.

"She's a…" Naruto looked to his sensei for assistance.

"Librarian," Iruka added which gave his student a grin.

"Yeah! A librarian!" Naruto repeated. "Anyway, she was super helpful to me when finding books and stuff. And like, she said I could borrow the books for free and come by whenever I want. She's pretty cool," Naruto concluded. Ayame however started to feel a little jealous.

"I thought I was your only Nee-chan though Naruto." She said.

Naruto tilted his head like a confused puppy. "You are my Nee-chan, Nee-chan," he said "but Rika-nee is pretty cool too. And she's like your age so it's nearly the same. It's like I have two nee-chan's now!" Naruto said realizing that he now had more precious people. "Woo!" he cried as he did a little fist pump into the air. Ayame sighed. She figured he was just too young to realize girl's feelings, even if they were maternal.

"I'm glad you met another nee-chan Naruto," she told him with a small smile.

"Me too," Naruto agreed as well. Iruka and Teuchi decided to just stay out of it all. They knew how bad women could be when they became a little possessive over something. And, because they both knew the rather strong elderly sister feelings that Ayame had on Naruto, she wasn't going to be happy knowing that there would be someone competing for the title of 'Naruto Uzumaki's sister.'

As Naruto and Iruka were paying up and slowly getting their things ready to leave Ayame only had one thought on her mind.

'Just you wait Rika, I'll show you that I'm the only nee-chan Naruto Uzumaki can want or need.'

Naruto and Iruka waved goodbye and walked back onto the streets again. The sun was slowly going down now.

"Well, I have some last minute things to attend to back at the academy, take care walking home OK," Iruka told Naruto. Naruto gave a fake salute.

"Yes sir!" he cried.

Iruka sighed.

"Just behave yourself OK," and with that Iruka started making his way back towards the academy. However, before he turned the corner he heard Naruto shout out to him.

"Thank you for today Iruka-sensei!"

It made him smile. With that said, Naruto watched as his sensei rounded the corner leaving him alone. His smile never faded as he turned around and started running home with his books in his hands. He wasn't sure what it was, but something told him he was going to start enjoying reading books. He wasn't complaining. It was a start to a new chapter in his story, the story of Naruto Uzumaki. The soon to be smart shinobi!

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><p><strong>I hope you liked the first chapter. R&amp;R if you did :)<strong>

**Until next time, Vendo-sama is out! :3**


	2. The second page of a new chapter

**Hello Mina-san! **

**Here is Oraki-sama's gift to you! Chapter 2! WOO .**

**I'm really enjoying writing this story and personally I feel as if it's far better than the other stories that I have written so far. Plot wise and actual writing ability. I hope you're all enjoying it as well. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but the first few chapters are pretty slow moving. It sets the scene for the rest of the story so please bear with it for now.**

**Other than that, please enjoy! **

**Chapter 3 will be up soon :D**

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><p><strong><span>Disclaimer<span>  
><strong>

**As always, Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto-sensei and not Oraki-sama unfortunately.  
>T.T<strong>

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><p><strong>Naruto: The Tale of a Slightly Smarter Shinobi<strong>

**Chapter 2: Second Page of a New Chapter**

Naruto was in his room. Sitting on his bed with his legs crossed and his newly borrowed books scattered all around him. Naruto was currently in a little bit of a pickle. The evening was still young and he didn't exactly want to just go to sleep and he really did want to get started on his new books. However, he was unsure as to which book he should start with. He really wanted to get started into the ninja stuff but knew it would probably be better if he started reading that at the academy so as to get help from Iruka or when he was out and doing some training.

"Maybe I should go with something easy," he said to himself as he looked at the smaller book on his bed. It was the book he found at the back of the Genin section. He picked it up and dusted off the cover. The tale of an utterly gutsy shinobi it was called. He looked down at the bottom of the cover and saw that "Jiriya of the Sanin" wrote it. He heard the name some where before but didn't really pay much attention to it so he dismissed the annoying voice in the back of his mind about it. He opened the book to the very first page. On the inside of the cover there was an inscription.

"To my most dedicated reader," it said, "I give you this signed copy of my first book. May it inspire you to follow the true path of a shinobi," Then, on the bottom of the little message was Jiriya of the Sanin's autograph. Naruto didn't really know what that meant but it was a nice little message anyway. Naruto flicked over the page and arrived to the first lot of text. The top of the page read "Enter: The Ninja Naruto!"

Naruto was stunned. He and the main character shared the same name as him. He suddenly felt far more excited to read the book. He quickly packed away all his other books and put them on his bedside shelf. He then leapt back onto his bed with the Tale of an Utterly Gutsy Shinobi in hand.

Hours went by. Naruto was definitely not a fast reader but he had fallen in love with the book and it's story. His eyes darted from one side of the page to the other before he quickly flicked the page and continued to read hungrily. He was so engrossed into the book that he didn't even realize what time it was. He didn't care though. He just wanted to keep reading. The book was simple and easy to follow. The story of an average ninja going through hard trials to become the best was something that absolutely sold Naruto. Of course though, not even Naruto could pull off an all-nighter of reading. Naruto slowly felt his eyes getting heavy; he looked out the window and saw that it was already dark. The stars had made their presence known to the world within the night sky. He looked back down at his book. He had managed to read a quarter of the book already. He was rather proud of that effort. However, he couldn't continue. He needed to go to the academy tomorrow and despite the fact that he did nap in class from time to time, he really didn't want to get on Iruka-sensei's bad books after showing him the library yesterday and treating him to ramen. So, with that mindset he closed his book, making sure to remember his page number, changed into some sleep where, including his rather childish nightcap before crawling under the blankets of his bed and falling asleep.

The next morning, Naruto woke up nice and early. He was feeling rather refreshed and excited to start a new day. He quickly had a shower, had breakfast and got ready for his day at the academy. He checked the clock on his kitchens wall and realised that he had about half an hour until classes started. He didn't really have anything to do that morning. In all honesty, he just wanted to continue reading. He then had a small idea. If he left now, he could've brought some of the books he borrowed so that he could read in the classroom in peace before everyone showed up. The informative books were rather big so he'd need something to carry them in. The book he was reading last night was incredibly small in size, so much so that it could fit inside his inner jacket pocket, which worked well for him. He got up from the kitchen table after putting his dishes away and walked back into his room. He put the Tale of an Utterly Gutsy Shinobi inside his jacket and moved to where the other books were. He looked at the titles of the books again and took a moment to decide on which ones he wanted read the most.

'I think I might take the cook book,' he thought to himself. 'The fridge and cupboards are pretty empty and Iruka-sensei keeps saying I need to eat more than just ramen. If I find anything I want to cook I could stop by the market after classes I suppose,' he said in his head. Deciding on taking that with him, he took it out from his little pile. Seeing as he already had two books, he decided that that would be enough to tide him over the day at the very least. Holding the book close to his chest, he made his way out of his apartment. Making sure to lock the door as he walked out, he took off to the academy.

The walk was rather uneventful. It was still early and shops were still opening up. No one paid much attention to the blonde haired boy carrying a book in his arms making his way to the academy. Once he arrived there, he was pleased that it was still relatively empty. He could see some teacher in the classrooms from the outside of the building so he knew that it was open. He made his way from the main entrance of the main all the way to his classroom where Iruka would teach. He peeked inside. No one was there yet. Good. Usually he'd sit near the middle of the class in the center row. He had learned quickly that if you sit at the back and you were noisy, you'd get into trouble really quickly. It was the same for the front of the class. However, he found that if you were to sit in the middle, and you were only somewhat noisy or completely quiet, you could get away with a lot of things due to the fact that the noise from the other students would tend to drown out your own. However, today, he decided he wouldn't do that. The issue about being in the middle is that you were easily identified. At the back of the room, especially in the back corner, no one really paid much attention to you. That's kind of what Naruto wanted today. He just wanted to read. He entered the classroom and quickly took his seat by the window in the back row of seats. The sun was bright and the sky was blue. For some reason, when he opened the first few pages of the cookbook he borrowed, a warm sensation flooded him. It was…nice. He looked at the clock on the wall. He still had around fifteen minutes until lessons started.

'Plenty of time,' he thought happily. He opened to the first page of the cookbook, which just so happened to be the contents page. He realised that the book was broken up into categories ranging from breakfasts, short and simple lunches to some rather stunning dinners. He didn't really know where to start from so he decided that he'd just scan through the pages until he came across some foods that he thought would be really cool to make. So with that set in mind, he did so. He spent about five minutes going through the whole book and found that he wanted to try almost all the recipes there. They all looked so delicious and most of them didn't have many ingredients to them so Naruto felt it would be easy to buy with his limited amount of money. Sure some of them looked hard and he didn't know what a lot of the terms in the recipe meant like 'sauté' or 'simmer,' but he figured he'd learn them eventually as things went on. He had mentally took note of a few certain recipes that he felt he could cook if he had the right ingredients in his apartment which he probably hadn't so he also made a mental note to go shopping after classes as well. They were some rather simple dishes. The first one he wanted to try was a soup. Chicken and sweet corn he believed it was called. The other was a curry. He had seen many people eat it before but he himself had never tried it. He thought it'd be cool that if the first time that he did try it, it was something that he himself had made. He was rather enjoying his cookbook but his reading was suddenly interrupted. He felt a presence beside him. He turned around and saw a boy his age with a piercing onyx eyes and a hairstyle that resembled something similar to that of a duck.

'Sasuke Uchiha,' Naruto thought to himself. He quickly scanned the rest of the room. It was just the two of them at the current time within the classroom. He had apparently been reading for only five minutes. Which meant that people wouldn't start arriving until another five minutes time.

"You're reading a book," was all Sasuke said his eyes never leaving the book in Naruto's hands.

Naruto gave a simple nod as his response. Sasuke was acting kind of weird. He never really talked to anyone. Sure, he could understand that after the massacre, even he himself wouldn't be sociable but Sasuke had never been sociable. Not that he could remember at the very least. Naruto may have been stupid but he was always well informed. He knew what had happened with the Uchiha, and in all honesty, it made him feel somewhat relieved. Just to know that he wasn't the only kid in the academy all alone. That he may have had the possibility of a friend. That is until he saw the eyes of the Uchiha after the very first time they spared after the massacre. He realised then and there that a friendship between the two would've been hard to create.

The Uchiha shrugged at Naruto's rather bland response.

"Just making an observation," he said as he continued to walk past Naruto to the row in front of him and sat down on the chair by the window that was directly in front of Naruto's seat. It wasn't long before there was an awkward silence between the two. Sasuke had decided to just stare out the window. Shrugging, Naruto put his cookbook away having had read enough of it. He didn't want to just sit there though so he decided to take out the book he was reading last night from inside of his jacket and started reading from where he left off. Likewise to the night before, he became so engrossed into the book that he didn't notice that other people had started walking in. Almost everyone hadn't even noticed Naruto in the corner because of the fact that he was so quite and that he had his face buried in a book. Not even Iruka had noticed him. It wasn't until his name was called out in the role did Naruto actually start paying attention.

"Naruto!" Iruka had shouted out. Some laughs could be heard before someone had called out

"That idiot is probably skipping again!" which was followed by some more laughs.

"Huh?" Naruto said as he peered over his book.  
>"What are you talking about, I'm over here Iruka-sensei," Naruto said raising his hand to get his teachers attention. To say that everyone was a little surprised would be an understatement.<p>

"O-Oh," Iruka said stupidly. "Ok then…" he said as he ticked his name off the role.

No one else said anything but the classes' laughter stopped. Naruto had no idea what was going on so he decided to just shrug it off. Naruto continued to read throughout the lesson. He heard what they had been talking about and found it to be boring again. Usually he'd just sleep through the class but he now had a far more interesting book to read. No one really bothered with him, not even Iruka because for once, he had been somewhat productive, quiet and wasn't being a disturbance to the class. On more than one occasion he assumed that the reason why he wasn't allowed to sleep in class wasn't for the fact that it was because he was actually sleeping but for the fact that he slept loudly. Once the bell rang for lunch everyone had quickly made their out onto the yard to play on the playground and talk about their lesson. Naruto just continued to sit on his seat and read. Sakura and Ino were one of the last few people to walk out. The reason why was to mainly continue to stare at Sasuke who never took his eyes away from the window but eventually he too left to get some food. Seeing as it was just the two girls and Naruto left in the room, it was kind of hard not to notice him.

"Hey," Sakura said to Ino as they started leaving their seats. "Naruto is reading."  
>"Really?" Ino said a little bit surprised. She turned around and noticed that he indeed was reading and rather deeply too.<p>

"Seeing him with a book is kind of weird," she said honestly.

"I agree." Sakura replied. "I wonder what book could've got him into reading so much?"

"Did you want to ask him?" Ino asked off handedly as they slowly started making their way out. Sakura thought about it for moment a she she looked towards Naruto, honestly considering on whether or not she should act on her curiosity. In the end however she chose against.

"Na don't worry about it," she said before they both left the room. Naruto however, didn't. He decided to stay there reading a little more. Naruto only stopped when he felt a presence, once again beside him.

"Since when did you start reading?" the person asked. Naruto peered up from the top of his page.

"Oh, it's just you Shikamaru," he said looking up at the pineapple haired boy. "Iruka-sensei said if I can't concentrate in class then I should try learning another way. So he took me to the library. Turns out I actually like reading," Naruto said with a little chuckle. Shikamaru gave him an analytical glance before shrugging his shoulders.

"Well whatever, it's too troublesome to ask you anymore than that. If you ever go back to the library, maybe borrow a book on Shogi. I only ever play against my dad. It'd be fun to play against someone my own age for once," and with that said he walked away back to his seat to take a nap. Naruto looked at the clock. Lunch was about to end. He sighed, he figured that he ought to listen to some at least some of the lesson today. Reluctantly deciding to put his book back into his jacket pocket, he sat at his table, resting his chin on his palms. The bell rang. Students noisily made their way back into the class until Iruka had come back in and settled them down.

"All right everyone, time for some sparring," he said as he took a clipboard from his desk. The male population of the class all gave a cheer of excitement whilst except for a few such as Sasuke, Shikamaru and Shino just to name a few. The girls on the other hand all gave an exasperated moan.

"Do we have to sensei?" one of the girls asked, "we sparred yesterday."  
>"That was punishment. This time is to check progress, now let's go. All of you out to the yard," he informed then ordered. It wasn't long until they were all outside.<p>

"Ok," he started "I'll pair all of you up one at a time and you will each spar then make friendship symbol with your opponent," he told them. They all gave a chant of "yes sensei."

"The first pair, Shino and Kiba, please step into the ring."

The two did as they were instructed.

"Begin!" Iruka shouted and the two dove for each other. It wasn't a very long skirmish, in the end Shino won by a well-placed kick to the stomach sending Kiba out of the ring.

Iruka made some notes on his clipboard before calling out the next set of names. This continued for a little while with the academy students being paired up and being pitted against each other. The last pair and one of the most anticipated matches within the class were finally called.

"Naruto and Sasuke, please step up."

The two obliged.

"Are you two ready?" Iruka asked. Sasuke gave a nod and got into a stance. Naruto grinned wildly.

"Ready to lose Sasuke? This time I'm going to wipe the floor with you!" he declared brazenly. Sasuke gave him an impassive look.

"There's no point in shouting at me if it's all just empty words."

"Begin!" Iruka shouted.

With a yell Naruto rushed in with his hand cocked back. Once he got close enough, he sent his fist out like a bullet being fired from a gun. Sasuke tilted his head slightly and avoided it completely. He then sent a devastating punch to Naruto's stomach. Naruto doubled back. Not wasting anytime, Sasuke sent a kick aimed at Naruto's head. Naruto crossed his arms in front of his face effectively blocking the kick. Sasuke didn't let up though, Using the momentum he had, using his waist as his focal point, he pivoted his body, twisting himself like a semi-spring and switching legs to deliver a devastating roundhouse kick to the side of Naruto. Naruto coughed in pain. Sasuke, satisfied with the blow, went back to his stance in preparation for another bout. The girls around them cheered for their 'Sasuke-kun.'

Naruto sent him a glare. He rushed the raven-haired boy once again. Once he got close enough, his body motion became similar to that of Sasuke's a moment before, twisting his body like a spring and sending a devastating roundhouse kick to the boy. Sasuke blocked it easily but didn't realize how much power the kick had. He grunted as he took the impact and was knocked to the side. Naruto then threw a fast left hook at Sasuke's face. However, it wasn't fast enough. Sasuke caught Naruto's fist with a smirk. Annoyed, Naruto did the first thing that came to his head. Smacking his into Sasuke's. There was a loud crack as Sasuke dropped Naruto's fist and instinctively went to hold the part of his body, which was hurting. Naruto, being able to react faster to the pain, sent a right straight punch right into Sasuke's abdomen causing him to cough in pain. Naruto had a victorious smile embedded on his face. He figured he'd end it with one more punch. He was about to send one last left hook to end the match but Sasuke's speed got the better of him. He was within Naruto's guard in a second and sent an uppercut straight to Naruto's chin. Naruto felt his teeth forcibly smack together. Sasuke then sent a kick to Naruto's stomach pushing him back. The last thing Naruto saw before the match was called was a fist headed towards his face.

'I can block this!' he thought, but he didn't know what to do. His hands had come up to his face in a last ditch effort to protect himself but it was to no avail. The punch connected and he was knocked out of the ring, falling onto the floor.

"Sasuke wins," Iruka announced. Cheers from the girls could be heard as they fawned over their crush. The guys were all smiling and talking about their fights. Sasuke stood in the center of the ring looking at Naruto.

"Hurry up loser, we still need to do the friendship symbol," he said in a monotone. Naruto grunted as he picked himself up off the floor. He trudged towards Sasuke. Sasuke stuck too fingers out in something similar to a handshake. However, he did this looking away. Naruto did the same. The two sets of fingers wrapped around each other.

"Good. Now that you guys have done the friendship symbol we can all head back to class."

Everyone echoed with a "yes sensei!" and made their way back to the classroom. Sasuke was near the back, he was eyeing off Naruto who was currently walking with the rest of the group with his hands behind his head whistling the currently most popular song in the leaf. 'Fighting Dreamers.' Sasuke analyzed him. For someone so short and someone with no style or finesse, he was a rather good fighter, even if it was just brawling. Sasuke did not see the head-butt coming at all. It threw him off guard earning Naruto that punch to the stomach. The power his classmate had in his strikes was incredible as well. He was used to being hit hard but the kick that he blocked that was enough to actually move him. It was from that day onwards, Sasuke vowed to never underestimate the unpredictable blonde again.

Once everyone had arrived at class the last bell had rang.

"That will be all toady. All of you are dismissed," Iruka said as he packed up his papers and headed out of the classroom. All the kids made their way out of the classrooms at their own pace. Naruto had gotten his cookbook and walked off as well, the recipes he wanted to cook he didn't really have the money for so he was unable to buy them. He shrugged and started making his way to Ichiraku's ramen. The walk was pleasant. However, he couldn't help but think about his living conditions. Sure the old man had tried to make it as comfortable as he could but he never had enough money to actually do the things he wanted to do. He had gotten so used to saving his monthly allowance that he just sort of gone without things. But now, he wanted to start changing his life style. The Tales of an Utterly Gutsy Ninja inspired him to become better. On top of that, he wanted to try and experience new things. He now realised that books could give him that opportunity. But, for that, he needed money. He entered the ramen shop. Some shinobi was sitting there eating and took no notice of him. The owners of the shop gave him a warm greeting and started working on Naruto's usual. The man next to Naruto finished eating his ramen and left his money on the counter. With a curt goodbye, he left the shop. Naruto eyed the money on the counter. Suddenly he thought up of an idea. As Teuchi put Naruto's bowl in front of him, Naruto asked a question that would change his life.

"Hey old man, do you think I could work?" he asked. This caught the ramen chef completely by surprised.

"Um, excuse me?" the man asked the boy a little dumbfounded.

"Do you think I could work here from time to time so I can earn a little bit of money?"

Ayame walked up with a wonderful smile.

"I think it'd be a great idea dad!" she exclaimed. The elder man put a hand to his chin in a thinking pose.

"I don't know, this line of work isn't for the feint of hearted," he said mysteriously. Naruto looked downtrodden but he refused to give in.

"I know I'm still young, I haven't even turned eleven yet, but I'm sure I can do something to help out. I'm here often enough and I can learn quick," he said trying his hardest to earn his keep.

The experienced chef continued to think. He then looked at the boy straight in the eyes.

"I thought you wanted to be a ninja?" he asked rather seriously. Naruto swallowed but gave a firm nod.

"I-I do! But, at the moment I don't have any money to do the things I want to do and buy the things I want. But, if I work here I might be able to start getting the things I want!" he said.

"When I do become a ninja though, I can still work here when I'm free! I mean I know lots of people that are ninja and have a second job as well! Please Oji-san! I'm begging you!" Naruto hurriedly added as he put his palms together and bowed his head basically begging.

"Oh go on dad," Ayame added. Teuchi smirked.

"Very well!" he declared, "You start tomorrow!"

Naruto beamed.

"Thank you so much!" he shouted. He hurriedly ate his bowl of ramen and put his money on the counter.

"You won't regret this old man! Trust me!" and with that he ran out of the shop feeling excited.

"Do you think this will affect the amount of customers we have?" Teuchi asked his daughter. She shook her head with a smile.

"Most of the ninja understand the situation. Sure they may not like him but they don't openly abuse the boy or outright hate him. And seeing as most of our customers are ninja, then well, I think we'll be ok," she said with a smile as she started going off and doing some other work around the kitchen.

When Naruto got home, he put his cookbook away. He was feeling really pumped so he thought he'd go and do some training.

"Alright, let's see what other stuff these books have in store for me!" he exclaimed. From his pile of books, he took the taijutsu and the chakra control books and headed off to a training ground.

When he arrived, he took notice of where he was. It was training ground seven. This was where he usually trained by himself late in the afternoon to until sundown. It was usually a quiet training ground. It hosted a lake and forest all around the clearing, which made it an incredibly versatile training ground.

Naruto inhaled the fresh air around him. It felt good. He sighed happily.

"Alright," he said sitting down in the middle of the clearing with his books.

"Let's start with taijutsu, there is no way I'm letting Sasuke beat me like that again!" he exclaimed loudly to himself. Or, well, almost himself. He didn't know that there was someone hidden in the trees with distinct violet hair and snow-white eyes spying on him.

Naruto spent the next hour or so reading the taijutsu book. He loved every page of it. There were so many styles that he had never heard of before! He never liked what the academy teachers taught him in regards to taijutsu so he decided then and there that he'd learn a completely knew style. However, flicking through the book, he couldn't pick just one style. So, instead, he decided to take bits and pieces from other different styles that were in the book. Throughout it all however, he noticed that they all had the same basic stance and that each style said, "Perfect your stance."

Not having anything else to go with, that's what Naruto did. He spent an hour or so getting his stance just right. After he felt that he had done enough on his stance he read a chapter called 'the perfect punch' which talked about how a proper punch is executed. Naruto thought he already had a good punch so he decided to test it. On one of the training logs that was near him, he gave his usual punch. There was a solid thud and the usual small splintering of bark was evident. He smirked. He was rather proud of how strong his punches were. However, he wanted to see how much the book could improve his punch so he read it and decided to test it out.

"So…lead with shoulder hip and heal," he recited to himself as he went through the demonstrated motion within the book. He took a breath and exhaled as he did exactly what the book had told him. His fist landed on the log with a crack. For a moment, he left his fist on the tree segment looking at his fist with an analytical gaze. He then slowly removed his fist and saw that there was a significant dent in the log now.

"Woah…" Naruto said a little stunned. He did a fist pump into the air.

"Oh yea!" he shouted. "Books are awesome!"

Naruto spent the rest of his time at the training grounds working on his chakra control. He found this to be the hardest part of his training that afternoon. Naruto knew that he wasn't very good at chakra control so he decided to just go from the beginning and start from there. He never really understood the purpose of chakra control either until he read a certain line of the first page.

"…With good chakra control, a shinobi can use even the most taxing of jutsu with little to no effort…"

That got Naruto interested. He started having wild fantasies of being able to do super awesome jutsu whenever he wanted. Suddenly feeling super pumped, Naruto shouted out

"Let's do this!"

He turned the page and looked at the first exercise.

Naruto tilted his head as he recited what was at the top of the page.

"Leaf floating?" he questioned himself. He shrugged and kept reading. Once he had finished he gave a small nod.

'Alright,' started thinking to himself as he looked around 'so all I have to do is make a leaf float from the palm of my hand. Sounds simple enough,' he thought to himself as he picked up a leaf from the ground. He placed the leaf on the middle of his palm and started channeling chakra into it. The leaf then suddenly went flying off before slowly descending to the ground. Naruto looked at it with a frown.

'It's meant to just float on top of my palm, not go off flying,' he thought. He sighed as he picked up another leaf and tried again.

'This is going to take some time.'

The rest of the time he spent at the training ground was spent on working through his chakra control and taijutsu elements he learnt. Before nightfall, he had managed to get the leaf to levitate on his palm properly for a minute before it would go off flying. This was an improvement he thought was excellent. He had also managed to learn some other cool taijutsu techniques as well. Ones that made him smirk knowing that he'd be able to try it soon. Satisfied with the amount of training he had done, he decided to go home and turn in for the night. After all, he still had the academy to attend tomorrow and on top of that, he now had a job at Ichiraku's, which he would start at tomorrow as well. He needed all the rest he could get. Once he had gotten home, had something to eat and got ready for bed, he closed his eyes and let the night consume him.

* * *

><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed! :D<strong>

**R&R if you did ^_^**

**Much love 3**

**Oraki-sama is out!**


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